Ukrainian IT professional and military serviceman Andriy Magda developed the StickIt application for macOS. He created the project as a modern alternative to Apple’s standard system utility Stickies, which has not received significant updates to its design system and capabilities for a long time.
Ukrainian IT professional and military serviceman Andriy Magda developed the StickIt application for macOS. He created the project as a modern alternative to Apple’s standard system utility Stickies, which has not received significant updates to its design system and capabilities for a long time.
The developer announced the release on Reddit. According to Magda, the idea for the project arose due to the lack of a concise and at the same time aesthetic note-taking tool on the market: most of the existing analogues in the App Store had overloaded functionality or interface problems.
The main concept of StickIt is to follow the principle of «one note — one window» without the need for a main interface. The program supports basic text formatting, alignment, creating links and interactive to-do lists, where completed items are automatically moved to the bottom. Users can pin notes on top of all windows, change the size and color scheme.
«I like the principle of native macOS stickers — Stickies, simple notes that do one task, but well — a purely unix approach. But they are outdated and ugly. I set myself the following task: stickers should be simple, without a main window, attached on top of windows, have basic formatting, checklists, and be beautiful,» Andriy Magda noted.
During the development process, the author encountered difficulties implementing native text formatting using the macOS API. After six iterations of architecture restructuring, the author decided to use webview to stabilize the word processor.
StickIt is dedicated to privacy: the app works without tracking, analytics, or third-party accounts. Data is synchronized between Macs via the user’s private iCloud storage.
StickIt is currently available for download on the Mac App Store. The developer continues to collect user feedback to optimize monetization and is considering releasing an iOS version in the future.
